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AT&T makes an offer to get Time Warner deal done

AT&T today offered federal regulators a concession related to the parent company of CNN, in its ongoing attempt to get approval for its pending $85 billion takeover of Time Warner.

The give: In its response to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, AT&T addressed concerns that it would increase prices on rival distributors for content produced by Time Warner subsidiary Turner — increases that then would be passed on to consumers. If the Time Warner deal closes, AT&T would agree to seven years of "baseball style" binding arbitration with distributors, and also that it would not pull Turner content from rival distributor systems while such arbitration is ongoing. The offer does not appear to include HBO, which also is a Time Warner property.